Sandwich wraps

For some reason I just could not sleep this morning. I hate it when that happens, but it does have some positives. I do enjoy the quiet mornings when my house is still and I can do whatever I want. Like type without a little person interrupting every other word (literally). And this morning I have a cake order, which, since I resigned from my 'steady' cake job way back in December, have been few and far between. I have to say, I rather it like this way. I almost forgot what it was like to plan it all out. And the house smells wonderfully of cake. I will have to post a picture when I am done. This morning it is a cupcake 'cake' that will look like a large purple and teal flower. Fall usually finds a resurgence in cakes, with a quiet time around the Christmas holidays, then to pick back up in the spring before virtual silence in the summer months. Do kids with summer birthdays not eat cake? I don't know, my birthday is in the winter, as are my children's and most of my friends. My husband's is in the summer, but he doesn't really like cake...Maybe it's ice cream cake they eat?

Well, anyway, I am completely off the topic I intended to write about. Today I wanted to share this cool project I saw at  Chico & Jo . It's a sandwich wrap. I know, that's what plastic baggies and ziplocks are for. The problem for me, is with two kids, I use SO many baggies! It's crazy, and the girls are always grabbing some to put their 'treasures' in and carry around for five minutes, before I step on them and then put them in our play room to be forgotten. Well, that is, until a year later, when they've long since been tossed or reassimilated and suddenly they want to know where did I put those?? How could I have gotten rid of them? This is when I pretend I have NO idea what they are talking about; or blame it on their Dad, they usually believe that one.

So, yes, sandwich wraps, super easy. You know all of those plastic bags you get from the store? I tend to save them for trash bags or padding in packages, because in Iowa (or at least in my city) you can't recycle these in the curbside recycling program. Instead you have to go back to the store and recycle them. I think I mentioned in a previous post, or two, that I'm kinda lazy. Please. Don't make me go to the store for bottle returns AND plastic bags. It's just not happening. So, yes, I have quite a few bags, though now that I make my own shopping bags, I've found there are times that I have to purposely take a plastic bag because I need one for a project. This particular project requires 3 or 4 plastic bags, 1 one-gallon Ziplock bag, parchment paper (please don't use waxed paper, it will melt), some fabric (14x14"), thread, SEW on velcro (don't EVEN try to use the self adhesive kind--I've heard, though I can't say where, that this is a complete disaster and that you end up having to remove your sewing machine needle to clean it. Not to mention the multiple thread ripping, fabric jamming episodes you incur...Sigh. SO glad that didn't happen to me, wink, wink...) Did I mention lazy already?

Once you have all the proper supplies, place a piece of parchment on your ironing board, or in my case my granite counter top. Perfect for the lazy person, because I don't have to go get and set up the ironing board. Bonus! Now take your plastic bags, cut off the handles and all wording on the bags. Make a nice pile of 3 to 4 bags this way. Next, if you'd like to put words on your wrap, this is the time. Cut out letters from the leftover bag pieces and write something! I'll show you mine in case you're saying, huh?  (As you can see, I spelled the word "AUDREY" and  "REUSE" on the plastic)

When you place your letters, be sure to put them in the middle. As you heat up these bags (not yet!), they will shrink a bit, and you will be trimming the edges. Now, take your ziplock, cut it to fit, I just remove the zipper top and open an edge and then flatten it, and place on top of your bag and letter pile. Lastly, place a second sheet of parchment over the top of all of this. Okay, now you can iron. I go for medium high heat, you'll have to see how your iron handles it. Your goal here is to melt the plastic together to form one thick piece. You may want to open the windows while doing this. I haven't noticed major fumes, but I imagine there are some. Once you have this done you need to trim your plastic to a 12x12" square.

Now, place your plastic square face up on top of your larger (14x14") fabric square, (fabric is laying wrong side up--so wrong sides together). You now can do a double fold of the fabric at the edges. So, fold the fabric once so that it meets the plastic edge and then fold that part over so that it is now on top of your plastic. Pin. Do this all the way around. (you don't have to try to skip the pinning part...I already tried for you. It doesn't work). You are ready to sew the edges. When this is done you just have the velcro to attach. Cut two strips EACH of the hook and loop. Make them about 1 inch in length.  Lay your wrap down, plastic side up, in the diamond position (point up toward north, not flat side). Take a piece of velcro, let's say the hook one. Turn it lengthwise and pin it to the 12 o'clock position (at the point). Next take your other hook tab, turn it the opposite direction (horizontal) and pin it at the 3 o'clock point position. Flip your wrap over. Take your loop pieces. Pin one on the fabric side at 3 o'clock (horizontally again), and then pin the other one, lengthwise, at the 6 o'clock point position. So, two tabs on each side; one at each of the points (loops on same side, and hooks on same side). You want the 12 & 6 o'clock tabs to hook together and the two 3 o'clock tabs to hook together when you're all done, making, uh, a wrap. Okay, let's see a couple more pictures!

 

Oh, and one more thing. You may have noticed that my wrap doesn't look exactly square. Let me assure you that if you follow the directions, yours will be. Something about being lazy...oh, well, ya know I didn't quite measure it exactly as written, and guess what? If you don't start with a square, you won't end with one either. One of those little known math facts I'd ceased to remember in my haste.

So now you're set! Go make a wrap. And if you're so inclined, make a bag for all of those animal crackers. Which, I think for my next bag, I'll either extend the velcro strip, or I'll add a piece to the corners, as well as the middle.